Total cargo shipments on the St. Lawrence Seaway have now surpassed 2013 levels despite one of the most difficult starts to the shipping season in years due to ice coverage.

According to Seaway figures, total cargo tonnage from March 25 to August 31 reached 20 million metric tons, up 3 percent over the same period last year.

The strong recovery has been fuelled by grain exports, increases in road salt inventories for Great Lakes municipalities and an influx of specialty steel and other metals for the automotive and construction industries. Construction materials such as stone and cement have also been in strong demand.

Total grain shipments (including U.S. and Canadian) have reached 5.6 million metric tons, up 73 percent over last year. U.S. grain so far this season has totaled 630,000 metric tons, up 13 percent.

General cargo tonnage — including specialty steel imports as well as aluminum and oversized project cargo like machinery or wind turbines — has topped 1.5 million metric tons, up 66 percent.

Speciality steel is shipped through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the ports of Cleveland, Detroit, Burns Harbor, Toledo and Milwaukee, and then further processed by U.S. manufacturers for use in the automotive industries.

Year-to-date dry bulk cargo totaled 4.9 million metric tons, with strong increases in construction materials such as stone and cement, as well as road salt.

“It’s taken several months to even get close to catching up from the icy start to this shipping season but, by mid-summer, cargo shipments through the Port of Duluth-Superior had rebounded significantly," said Vanta Coda, Executive Director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. "The Port has shown strong gains, particularly in general cargo handling and iron ore shipments. In fact, one-third of the iron ore that shipped out of Duluth-Superior through July was bound for Canadian steel mills or transloaded at a Canadian port on the Seaway for overseas export. Here at our Port Terminal in Duluth, we’ve welcomed six ships from Europe loaded with mining equipment, wind turbine components and other energy-related cargoes as well as a Kaolin clay shipment from Brazil…and another half-dozen general cargo shipments are on the books for fall.”